Early methods of lancing included piercing or slicing the skin with a needle or razor. Current methods utilize lancet drivers that contain a multitude of spring, cam and mass actuators to drive the lancet. These include cantilever springs, diaphragms, coil springs, as well as gravity plumbs used to actuate the lancet. Typically, the device is pre-cocked, or the user cocks the device. The device is held against the skin and the user, or pressure from the users skin, mechanically triggers the ballistic launch of the lancet. The forward movement, and depth of skin penetration of the lancet is determined by a mechanical stop and/or damping, as well as a spring or cam which retract the lancet.
Current devices generally rely on adjustable mechanical stops or damping to control the lancet's depth of penetration to compensate for skin thickness and hydration. Such devices have the possibility of multiple strikes due to recoil, in addition to vibratory stimulation of the severed nerves as the driver impacts the end of the launcher stop. Cams may offer rough control of lancet velocity in and out of the skin, but do not allow for compensation for skin thickness and hydration. Variations in skin thickness and hydration may yield different results in terms of pain perception, blood yield and success of obtaining blood from different users of the lancing device.